Exonerated: Sharjeel Memon acquitted of kidnapping charges

HYDERABAD:

The former provincial minister, Sharjeel Memon, has been cleared of kidnapping charges after the accuser, SSP Pir Farid Jan Sarhandi, backed off from the police inquiry.

The probe team, led by Hyderabad DIG Khadim Hussain Rind and SSPs from Hyderabad, Jamshoro and Matiari, will submit the report to the home ministry.

The controversy, described as a 'big time conspiracy' by Memon, erupted after Sarhandi arrested a suspect Bashir Brohi, who is said to be Memon's farm manager, on September 2. The SSP, who was then posted in Thatta, arrested Bashir from Hyderabad and linked him to the disappearance of Dr Asif Memon, who was kidnapped from Hyderabad in October 2014. He was released in January, 2015, after paying the ransom.

"We wrote to Sarhandi to either submit his statement or appear before the inquiry but he didn't submit his reply," said a police official, whose identity could not be disclosed because of his association with the inquiry.

The official said that neither the victim nor Bashir implicated Memon. The SSP who accused him has apparently shied away from the case, he added.

Sarhandi had alleged that Bashir received a ransom amount of Rs7.5 million from Dr Asif's family and handed it over to the alleged kidnapper Iqbal Badak Brohi. He also accused Memon of protecting Bashir.

Khalid Ahmed Memon, Dr Asif's brother, had categorically denied Memon's connection with the kidnapping. The family also did not lodge FIR of the kidnapping that was registered eight months after Dr Asif's release on the police complaint at Husri police station.

The police will implicate Bashir for assistance in the ransom payment because the suspect has reportedly admitted his involvement. However, the suspect is expected to get bail in the case because the victim and his family have so far shown no interest in pursuing the case.

The two sub inspectors from Thatta, Anwar Lakho and Zulfiqar Arain, who arrested Bashir and interrogated him as well, stated that they only complied with the directives of Sarhandi.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2015.